SKIP

Congrats to these amazing educators who spent extra time outside of their summer vacations to deepen and learn new concepts to use in the classroom! From drawing behavior over time graphs to mapping causal loop diagrams, we can’t wait to see what you do with your new skills with young people!

Thanks for the fun!

Spring is here, and so are fresh ideas. We’re spending time with our friends at to plant seeds for the future—can’t wait to see what grows from our thinking session. change

🌟 Educational Change: What’s the Real Impact? 🌟

When you hear “side effects,” you probably think of medicine—but what about the side effects of changing education systems? 📚 Policies aimed at improvement don’t always play out as planned, and their effects can ripple through schools in unexpected ways—“good” and “bad.”

In St. Louis, schools are tackling tough issues like dwindling student enrollment, funding gaps, and teacher burnout. Our latest paper digs deep, revealing how solutions in one area can impact the entire system—and why it’s crucial to prepare for all the outcomes, big and small.

Want a new perspective on equitable systems change in education? Check out the latest published in Review of Research in Education (RRE)!

🔗: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XD7W_EcNt6f60_F63WPfJ46WirFmDonZ/view?usp=drive_link

🌟 New research says that teens using social media for over 3 hours daily face double the risk of depression and anxiety! 😧

This week, we teamed up with to explore these connections. From doom-scrolling traps and self-comparison to the joy of cat videos, we discussed it all!

🐱📱 Teens shared their strategies for navigating these platforms designed to keep them hooked. How do you think social media affects teens?

Drop a comment and let’s break these cycles together! 💬✨

📖 Part 3 of 3

Faced with few high-leverage policy options, STL school leaders considered how they could collectively address declining enrollment. They agreed to work on designing solutions to balance immediate challenges with long-term improvements. Through a “Learning Visits” pilot, an offshoot of this research, school leaders are sharing successful practices with each other.

This work is a step towards lasting improvement and success for every student in St. Louis. Untangling the complex and fragmented school system, which contributes to parental stress and prompts families to leave, will take bold restructuring and efforts of many, not just a few.

Want to know more? Check out our webpage: https://skipdesigned.com/k-12-model-sharing/

📖 Part 2 of 3

As a whole, St. Louis City district and charter schools have been facing declining student enrollment for decades. Since public school funding is based on enrollment and costs of maintaining buildings are fixed, resources to serve students who remain are spread thinner each year.

In 2022, informed by parents and educators, we worked with researchers to build a computational model that was calibrated with school and neighborhood data to test policies that could reverse enrollment trends, such as: pausing new school openings; consolidating existing schools (i.e., closing schools); increasing funding; raising teacher salaries; marketing schools; and improving community safety.

What did we find?

Of all the policy interventions, only one was effective at stabilizing enrollment and thereby conserving resources to foster the conditions for academic achievement. Closing a large number of schools in a short period was effective at stabilizing enrollment across the entire system.

While this approach helps the education system financially, the long-term side effects could be harmful if not executed with thoughtful alternatives. For more on the racially inequitable impact of St. Louis school closures, refer to Dr. Ebony Duncan-Shippy's paper or Eve Ewing’s book on Chicago school closures: Ghosts in the Schoolyard.

Follow along next week for Part 3. Get a sneak peek here: https://skipdesigned.com/k-12-model-sharing/

“[Choosing a school in St. Louis] leads to extreme stress, societal pressures, and parental guilt,” wrote a St. Louis parent. “We moved to a place where we didn’t have to choose our school, and it’s a comfort and a relief. St. Louis City has way too many schools for too few kids, and it’s hurting everyone.”

As a system of district and charter schools, we lose 650 students annually--a combined $11 million each year.

Despite dedicated educators, a shrinking budget makes it challenging to meet the needs of the students who remain.

Declining enrollment is tough to solve. It would have been fixed by now if it weren’t. St. Louis families and schools, both district and charter, are working hard on deeply rooted challenges that are too big for any single leader, school, or initiative to solve alone.

In 2022, a group of St. Louis district and charter school leaders decided to try something different. They met monthly to address shared challenges in the hopes of building an efficient, high-performing system of schools. SKIP DesignEd & MIT offered pro-bono research to support their efforts. Follow along for what we found.

📖 Part 1 of 3

Want to know more? Check out our webpage.

🎓✨ New Insights on STL Student Mobility! Our latest study reveals the unique challenges of high student transfer rates in St. Louis, impacting student education and consistency. Conducted with partners like , , and more, we explore the effects of mid-year school transfers and highlight educator-proposed solutions. 📚🔄

Learn more about our findings and how we're addressing this issue: www.stlrpc.org/student-mobility

🌐

Exciting update! 🌟 The St. Louis Research-Practice Collaborative just wrapped up its final advisory committee meeting for the pilot study on student mobility. 📚 We're thrilled to announce a renewed commitment to collaboration, learning, and adaptation to better serve students and educators across the region! 🤝 This partnership is all about making informed decisions with data to support children in STL, and we can't wait to do more. 🚀

In the coming weeks, stay tuned as the St. Louis School Research-Practice Partnership shares and designs what's next. 🎉 If you're curious and want to learn more about our work, visit www.stlrpc.org. ❤

Today, we're visiting 's Winter Assemble hosted in the beautiful library of East St Louis High School!

One Goal works with districts across the nation to drive student success after high school. Check out their work to transform postsecondary advising and support in schools.

Thanks for letting us tag along!

We loved hosting ! His excellence in work and contagious joy made our summer so memorable. Thanks to the for hosting this program.